7o8 



GLEAA'lXCiS IN liEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



piece of iinisic, and perhaps render tlie 

 words witli the voice in accompaniment, 

 with all the " vim " characteristic of •' Dot 

 Happy Bee-niau." The next sung will be 

 published in our issue for Oct. 15. If you 

 are not able to attend the convention, we 

 hope you will be able to liear the song at 

 home. We wish you might all hear Dr. 

 Miller render it in Ins bright happy way, to- 

 gether with the peculiar German accent 

 which he has the reputation of " getting off" 

 so well. 



HOW WIDE SHOULD W^E HAVE OUR 

 TOP-BARS? 



WHY THE BEES BUILD BRACE COMBS ABOVE THE 

 TOP-BARS. 



fHE wired frames sent me have caused me 

 quite an unexpected annoyance, the linowl- 

 edge of which may be of some use to the 

 bee-keeping fraternity. Up to this time I 

 madb my own frames with top-bars one inch 

 wide and three-fourths of an inch thick. With such 

 top-bars I had very little brace comb built between 

 the frames and the section boxes. 1 do not use 

 honey-boards. With yours, brace combs are built 

 everywhere. Upon investigation it seems, first, 

 that the bees draw the foundation and build the 

 comb longer than the width of the top-bar, Fig. A. 



Then, finding the cells unsupported on the upper 

 side, they continue to build on the side of the bar. 

 Fig. B; and Anally on the top, Fig. C. At last they 

 fill between the top-bar and the section boxes or 

 the honey-board, if one is used, leaving only the 

 passages necessary to their going and coming. The 

 inference is, that, if the top bar were as wide as the 

 comb is thick, there would be no such prolongation. 

 Perhaps the extra thickness of the top-bar would 

 also help. Adrian* Getaz. 



Knoxville, Tenn., July 4, 1K88. 



Friend G., I am glad you have called up 

 this important question. Years ago I made 

 numerous experiments on a large number 

 of hives, in regard to the width of top-bars, 

 trying them all the way from f of an inch 

 wide up to U. The latter made the most 

 trouble and inconvenience of any widths 

 tried. The f-inch .top-bar pleased us in 

 some respects, but it was open to the objec- 

 tion you give in your drawings. But it 

 seems to me you have started out with a. 

 wrong impression in regard to the width of 



the cells in brood comb. 1 decided that I 

 inch was as near right as we could get the 

 average thickness of brood comb; there- 

 fore when the brood was carried clear up to 

 the top-bai, the sides of the top-bar would 

 be exactly level with capped brood, and I 

 think you will lind this is correct. Now, 

 it is true that the bees often store honey 

 for an inch or two above the brood ; and if 

 they are crowded for room, these honey- 

 cells will project beyond the top-bar ; but 

 after using top-bars one inch wide, U, and 

 U inches, for a series of years, we decided 

 we had least trouble with those i; and if 

 you have not experimented very long in the 

 matter, I think you will come to the same 

 conclusion. The extra thickness, up and 

 down, of the top-bar, will certainly help the 

 matter of brace combs ; and one of our 

 Canadian friends, Mr. J. B. Hall, l»y liaving 

 top-bars over one inch in thickness, accom- 

 plishes pretty nearly the same result that 

 Heddon does with "his break-joint honey- 

 board ; that is, the bees do not fasten the 

 crates holding the sections to the top-bars, 

 with wax and propolis ; but can we afford 

 to have our top-bars an inch or more 

 through, up lind dovi^nV 



BUGS AND BEETLES. 



HUMMING-BIRD MOTHS, ETC. 



R. M. A. KELLEY, Milton, W. Va., sends me 

 a " bug "—it is a beetle— and a " worm "—it 

 is rc?.lly a moth larva, or caterpillar, which 

 lie asks roe to name in Gleanings. Ho says 

 they are particularly interested in the 

 "worm." The beetle is black, over an inch long; 

 and as it is new to my collection I am very much 

 pleased to get it. It is one of the elaters, or spring 

 beetles, of which I have written several times of 

 late. The grub, or larva, probably lives in rotten 

 wood on which it feeds. I regret to say that the 

 larva was, owing to delay in the mails, so dried up 

 that identification was impossible. lean only say 

 that it was probably a moth larva— I think one of 

 the Nocttdiltv, or night-flyers. I hope Mr. Kelley 

 will send more. 



Mr. W. P. Root writes, " Please name the beauti- 

 ful moth which I send you." He says, very truly, 

 that it has a " sugai-tooth," and looks like a hum- 

 ming-bird. This is one of our diurnal sphinx 

 moths, and is known to science as Hemaris difmis. 

 All of the Si)}iingi(l(r are called, very properly, hum- 

 ming-bird moths. They all have large bodies, 

 strong narrow wings, and very long tongues. Thus 

 it is that they can— humming-bird like— poise them- 

 selves some distance from a flower and sip the nec- 

 tar by use of this long tongue. Most sphinx moths 

 arc night llyers or twilight flyers, and, like the com- 

 mon tomato-sphinx, are usually gray in color. A few, 

 like the one sent, fly in the hottest sunshine, and are 

 very beautiful. This one is brown and biiff, and, with 

 its transparent wings, is very handsome. Like all 

 moths, and butterflies as well, it is robed with 

 minute, delicate, and very beautiful scales, which, 

 from their delicate and varied colors, give the 

 beauty which is so much admired. In this speci- 

 men the scales were mostly rubbed oft', and so, as 

 friend Root says, " it has lost most of its brilliant 

 gloss." In making our collections we are careful 



